Paquet takes seventh at WTCS Hamburg

Canada’s Charles Paquet was right in the mix in the fiercely competitive sprint event that opened the 2022 World Triathlon Champioship Series in Hamburg today, taking seventh in the men’s sprint race yesterday.

Takumi Hojo from Japan led the way out of the water, and was part of an initial breakaway group of six that opened up a gap of 10 seconds on the chase group on the bike. After a few laps of the technical bike course in Hamburg the group added a couple of mor members – which put eight men in the breakaway group including Chase McQueen (USA), Jonas Schomburg (GER), Dylan McCullough (NZL), Mark Devay (HUN), Leo Bergere (FRA), Tim Hellwig (GER), Sylvain Fridelance (SUI) along with Hojo. The group was caught before the end of the bike, though, turning the race into a five km sprint for the title.

After the first loop there were still almost 30 men within 30 seconds of each other, but over the final 2.5 km a dramatic sprint was set up for the blue carpet. Germany’s Tim Helwig would thrill the crowd by taking the win in 53:08, with France’s Paul Georgenthum and Leo Bergere finishing in photo finish less than a second behind. Paquet, who was in the mix for parts of the run, wasn’t able to stay at the front as things wound up, but still finished seventh.

For full results from the men’s race click here.

Today’s mixed relay was also taken by Germany – Helwig was able to overcome a 10-second penalty to sprint to the win over Italy with Denmark rounding out the podium. Canada ended up ninth.

Results from today’s mixed relay can be found here.